Was The Contribution Of The Soviet Union The Main Cause Of The Defeat Of Nazi Germany? .
There were many different factors that influenced the victory of the allies such as the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) at Dunkirk. This helped greatly because it not only increased the morale of the British, but also formed the basis for a new army. However possibly one of the main factors was the Soviet Union's contribution.
Hitler's foreign minister, Joachin Von Ribbentrop picked out three main factors .
The unexpected "power of resistance- of the red army (Russia).
The vast supply of American armaments.
The success of the allied air power.
This was Hitler's explanation too, although, Hitler thought the real military cause of defeat was the failure of the German Air Force. As Hitler's foreign minister picked out the strength of the "Red Army,"" it would have to have been a considerable contribution.
On 22 June 1941, some three million soldiers of Germany and her allies began an attack on the Soviet Union. This war was supposed to be over in a matter of months, but it lasted for four years, and grew into the largest and most costly conflict in all history. It was here, in the vast struggle between the two dictatorships, that the German army was defeated and the outcome of World War Two was decided in favour of the Allied powers (the British Empire, the United States and the USSR). The cost to the Soviet Union was an estimated 27 million dead.
The battle of Stalingrad came as a complete surprise to Stalin even though he had been warned of the dates Germany was planning to invade. Stalin thought that Hitler wouldn't risk an eastern war as well as a western; he thought that a war on two fronts was an idea that would never work. .
Stalin did not want to risk war with Germany, however he hoped to profit from the Western front battle if he could. The shock of Germany attacking almost unhinged the Soviet state, and by the autumn German forces had destroyed most of the Red Army and the Russian air force, surrounded and besieged Leningrad.
